A major survey that will help plan school places in the Royal Borough and other parts of Berkshire is set to begin in early May

Researchers from an independent company will be carrying out doorstep interviews with households in new and recently built housing in a bid to gauge how many extra children there are in the borough.

This information will help each local authority plan ahead for school places and classrooms for children moving into their borough. It will also enable more accurate predictions for future numbers of pupils and demands on certain schools by identifying trends.

The Royal Borough’s school place planners are collaborating with colleagues at the other Berkshire councils (Slough, Bracknell Forest, Wokingham, Reading and West Berkshire) and Qa Research will conduct the survey.

The researchers, who have already started work in other parts of Berkshire, will be surveying 2,400 households across the six participating boroughs.

They will carry identification and a letter of introduction with contact numbers so that residents can confirm who they are before answering any questions.

Questions will focus on the size of the home and the numbers and age of any children living there. It will be important to get responses from all participating households, even if there are no children living in those properties.

Cllr Quick, lead member for children’s services, said: “This is a very helpful exercise as it ensures the information the borough has is as accurate and up-to-date as possible.

“This in turn means we can better plan school places and accommodation for our pupils in the short and longer term.”

This is the third time this survey has been carried out, following on from similar exercises in 2005 and 2001.